It’s official! After several years of rumors, Apple has officially unveiled its highly anticipated smart-home hub, and as Mark Gurman predicted, it’s called the “Apple HomeView.” Apple touts this device as a new way to enjoy your favorite content, stay connected with your loved ones, and manage all of your smart home accessories in one place.

Design

The Apple HomeView largely resembles the iconic iMac G4 – not exactly a 1:1 replica, but at least the HomeView has inherited many design cues from the G4. The HomeView features a stunning aluminum design that comes in silver, starlight, rose pink, and space gray. Its stainless steel hinge allows the built-in 7-inch Liquid Retina display for tilt adjustment, perfect for any surface, including desks or countertops. Apple put extra thought into making sure everything is color-matched, down to both the hinge and the included USB-C cable.

Additionally, there’s another variant of the HomeView that is designed to be wall-mounted, and it has the same features that we’ll discuss now. The wall-mount variant comes in space gray and silver.

Display

As mentioned before, the HomeView features a brilliant 7-inch Liquid Retina display for enjoying several forms of entertainment and admiring the built-in widgets. The Display also packs in Apple’s acclaimed adaptive display technologies such as True Tone and automatic brightness. In fact, the built-in display can go up to 500 nits, which is readable enough in brighter environments, and it can go down to just 0.3 nits, so it’s easier on the eyes even in the dark, making HomeView the ideal nightstand solution.

Multi-User Friendly

The HomeView is made to be family-friendly as it supports up to six people, so each member of the family can personalize their own Home Screen with various arrangements of apps and widgets. HomeView is also considerate in keeping your personal content, such as messages, visible to only you, but HomeView can also show shared photo albums and music for household members and even guests to enjoy.

Siri AI

Of course, one of the biggest features for HomeView has to be Siri AI. Thanks to the advanced A18 chip, household members will be able to have conversations with Siri AI, and Siri AI will work intelligently in providing you with the most relevant information, such as upcoming Calendar events and even important messages from people who matter most to you. Users will also be able to customize the expressiveness and pace of Siri’s voice. Plus, Siri AI will save and sync conversation history across all of a user’s Apple products, so the user can easily pick up the conversation on any Apple device.

More faces, more personality

HomeView also offers a wide range of faces for customers to enjoy – both utilitarian ones that display more information at a glance, and more fun, casual ones such as the ‘Snoopy’ face. The Photos face also brings that Portrait-style depth of field to make sure your subjects stand out more.

Enhanced Entertainment for the home

HomeView features a custom-engineered acoustic system that makes sure audio sounds great across not only Apple’s built-in entertainment apps such as Music, Podcasts, News, and TV, but HomeView will also work with other compatible third-party streaming apps from your iPhone. With the two custom full-range drivers, a down-firing woofer, and two force-cancelling passive radiators, HomeView is capable of delivering Spatial Audio that customers will appreciate.

Staying Connected

HomeView also features a built-in Center Stage camera, which is convenient for users to make FaceTime calls, and the built-in Center Stage technology ensures that everyone is in the frame. Additionally, users can read and reply via either voice or the onscreen keyboard. Just like HomePod, HomeView also features Intercom to broadcast quick memos across the whole house, including other HomeView and HomePod models and even more personal Apple devices.

Made to be your go-to dashboard

HomeView is the ultimate place to both control your smart-home devices and monitor the home via the smart cameras thanks to the Home Modular fact and Home Camera face. HomeView is also designed with Apple Home Collection – a new line of smart home accessories that are designed in collaboration with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric.

Pricing / Availability

Apple HomeView is priced at $299, and that’s for both the default and the wall-mounted models. Pre-orders begin today, and they will be available starting Friday, November 13.

Video

Here’s the official video that summarizes what Apple HomeView is: